Actis and Jamison Valley Holdings, via Ukarimu real estate funds, announced a Kshs 1.0 billion joint venture bid for the acquisition of three hotels in Kenya.
These are the Fairview Hotel, Town Lodge and City Lodge Two Rivers in Nairobi. They have combined 382 rooms with City Lodge, Fairview and Town Lodge having 171,127 and 84 rooms, respectively.
This is through a newly formed special purpose company (SPV) listed in Mauritius called Msafiri Limited, which will own Ukarimu.
The three were put up for sale by their South African owner City Lodge Hotel Group in an attempt to leave East Africa after seven years of operation. The group also plans to sell the Tanzanian City Lodge hotel in Dar es Salaam for Ksh 7.3 million to Faraja Limited, also owned by Actis.
The company says the East Africa units were in deficit to an estimated US $ 18 million at the end of 2020.
Cytonn Investments says City Lodge Group average occupancies for the year 2021 came in at 19.0 per cent compared to 38.0 per cent in 2020 and 55.0 per cent in 2019 with the Two Rivers City Lodge Hotel occupancy estimated at 7 per cent -10 per cent in the same period.